Top mangaka Ken Akamatsu has stated his misgivings about the reliance of the manga industry on the shonen holy trinity of One Piece, Naruto and Bleach, and what would befall publishers if these series were to conclude.

After describing some of the worsening financial results posted by top manga publishers, he describes his uneasiness about the situation:

It’s all pretty dire, although manga won’t drop dead just yet.

However, they are relying on the bubble-like sales of a few titles – we have to wonder what would happen if in 3 years this bubble were to pop.

For example, will Jump’s One Piece, Naruto and Bleach continue for 3 years? We can’t really predict what will happen to them (and even if the publisher wants to continue them, the authors aren’t always able to).

The recent conclusion of the hugely popular Full Metal Alchemist brings this issue sharply into focus – not all series can be expected to continue indefinitely (Naruto in particular appears to have an eventual ending planned), and blockbuster successors for those which conclude have so far been conspicuously absent.

Other mangaka have complained the industry is not developing new talent – a particularly precarious state of affairs when considered in conjunction with reliance on a few blockbuster titles which could end with no replacement in sight.

What? there are plans for these manga titles to end eventually? I mean I've never read or watched either of them, but it sure would be weird if they all disappeared all of a sudden. Wait, I meant to say refreshing not weird.

eichiiro oda, the author/mangaka of one piece, is actually considered a savior of the manga industry..

he(or someone) figured that people like supporting a certain figure for a very long time and thus creating income to his works and also while doing so, lifting up other mangakas and giving them also a time in the spotlight.

also, his creativeness is top notch. avoiding big amounts of fillers with shear genius that the mangakas of bleach and naruto just can't keep up with.

out of those other 3, i think Gintama is the 4th one in the race. it has the biggest possibility of being really long because of it not having a really direct plot. plus it is also very very very GOOD!!!

after that, bakuman has a huge potential but it shouldn't last more than 10 years.

fairy tail also has some possible long term life. it just needs to get away from that kiddy theme and maybe step it up a notch to a PG16 theme. Its just so bouncy and dull right now.. X_X

On a more serious note though, I never did get into Bleach, Naruto or One Piece as seriously, the one failing of epic manga and Anime is that they alienate new comers and usually cater to already existing fans.

Well I still haven't seen a worthy manga currently in WSJ which can replace One Piece, Bleach, Naruto and even HXH (when not in hiatus lol). I mean what did we get, Psyren? That shit's a piece of crap. We got Bakuman which is descent but I doubt it'll be long term. Gintama yoyo's and same with Reborn which is worse than Gintama by a large degree. Honestly I'd be afraid if Jump and Shuisha can't find another hit cause when those three go (especially One Piece) they're going to have to fill a hole both in WSJ and financially.

Plus to those saying it'll be better if we don't have "repetitive and redundant" long manga. Well guess what, these long ass manga bring in more dough than any other manga especially short ones can ever dream of. Financially they are a greater asset even though some originality is sacrificed (though in alot of cases short mangas can also be pretty unoriginal and repetitive).

I remember a similar question was asked when Dragon Ball ended...Weekly Jump is still around, isn't it?

Naruto and Bleach appear to be ending but One Piece looks to be going on for a long time. So Weekly Jump will still have One Piece, I'm pretty certain that there will be a new hit series in that publication to replace Naruto and Bleach.

Starting off with Naruto, well I was one of those people who was incredibly annoyed seeing how much spotlight this anime received. An anime about ninjas, who do nothing ninja like? Well, I took the time to watch it. The first few episodes were incredibly bland, though it picked up like what was it, 20, 30 episodes in maybe? It got interesting, but then it went to fillers... So I skipped 100 episodes, litterally 100 episodes, and it got back to the plot, after the short span of plot, I skipped another 100 episodes which led me to Shippuden. This is bad story telling. And even the main plots were simple at best. Though I'll admit entertaining, but it didn't live up to the hype, an wasn't very memorable.

Bleach: Well Started off okay, had some simple fillers, pretty bland, it kicked off much like Naruto, a bit faster, kept me hooked for about 50 episodes, then drowned me in fillers. Got back on track and then in the middle of the main plot it took a 30 episode filler break.... granted that was close to two years ago, and now I've heared they are still where I left off.

One Piece: Well I can't comment much, I won't auto say this is bad, I will however say the few random episodes that I have seen have been bad. And the art style didn't appeal to me. And I can give this excuse if I wish. OP isn't the only original art style out there. Look at Kaiji, Claymore, Katanagatari. All incredibly unique art design in my oppinion. Though to me OP's looks childesh, maybe thats why people who have never read or seen it say that? But again, I won't say it's terrible, because I havent seen it.

All in all, the Big 3 have some good points, but if you condense the big 3 into a 100 episodes, instead of Never ending, with more crap episodes then good ones, it's going to develop hate. And as long as the big 3 exist far better animes, with much more developed plot, or unique art, or even somethig we possibly havent seen before will be overshadowed. The big 3 are not terrible, they just are simply not great, and far better titles exist. Try broadening your horizens a little, and you will find the reasons why the big 3 are detested and loved at he same time. Disliked by the usual bland, and might I add predictible plot. But enjoyed because of the action, and in terms of DBZ The epic screaming power ups that make you feel like you just jizzed becase of how epic it is, feeling it gives out. But in the end I hope they die, and something original comes out, that won't release fillers, and will simply pause, and then put out epicness. Example of such an anime is Darker Than Black.

On Manga, I actually hardly read manga... unless I have the book in hand, so if you feel like telling me to read the manga's send me your collection :3 and I will. Other wise the above was anime wise only.

decline? 20 years ago the market could hold only ONE popular shonen at a time (whit 2 maybe 3 runners ups) now there are 3 (and like a dozens runners ups and hopefuls) and HAVE YOU SEEN THE SALES FIGURES OF ONE PIECE???!!!

Naruto - i love it, still anime recently is getting boring, not all fillers are interesting, movies are shit, and, what's the most important because of all that filler shit i sometimes forget what it's all about. It's getting a bit stupid sometimes and Naruto should grow up a bit more. Maybe I'm just too old...
Still, i still love it.

One Piece - at first i didn't like it because of the art. But i was bored and started watching it and i still am. This is really good. I'll never get bored.

Bleach - when i started watching it it was really really interesting. But later those all fillers... When only it's becoming interesting they tell you to watch some stupid fillers without any meaning, not funny and boooring. It would be really interesting if not those fillers. But that's not all to it. Because of the fillers the actual plot is becoming too long and eventually boring. I mean really, the fights are longer than even DB. And the chars are sometimes too shallow, because of the crappy story there is no concentration on the inside of chars. Only shallow comedy, with the same gags over and over. Still, i watch it, hoping to see them getting to meritum eventually.

I would like to have more shorter but good mangas. I don't like to say good bye to the chars i love but it's sometimes better.

I doubt that Kishimoto or Oda would create another manga, similar to Naruto or OP. Remember Toriyama, when he finally finished DB, he never ever wanted to create such thing anymore and started making some short mangas, which didn't become so popular. It's not actually that easy to create a completely new story, without repeating the story from previous manga. Kishimoto for example created many mangas before, all of them having similar accents, which actually created idea for Naruto. So it's not that he sat one evening and created a story that lasts until today. He was creating the story for his whole life. So people, don't count too much on them. They will create something for sure but i seriously doubt it will be a long title, rather a better quality, more thoughts maybe...

I wasn't talking much about bleach because I'm gradually losing respect for the series. Damn editors. They should read Genshiken or something...

Eiichiro said himself that One Piece will continue from the "2 years after" chapter for at least ten years! And Tite wants to finish the current arc for Bleach which will take 6 months and after that he will run the last arc for another 2 years. So there's nothing dramatic to be concerned about. And there's Fairy Tail which doesn't seem to be ending soon and maybe also Nurarihyon. (The manga has advanced pretty well.) Is there anybody who has info about naruto?